Ortiz asks high court to restore mail-ballot recall election

By peter roper
The pueblo chieftain

Published: August 14, 2013;Last modified: September 18, 2013 05:14PM

Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz filed his appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court this afternoon, arguing that a Denver judge’s decision this week should be overruled and that a mail-ballot recall election on Sept. 10 should go forward as originally planned.

State Sens. Angela Giron, of Pueblo, and John Morse, of Colorado Springs, face recall elections that day. Both are Democrats being targeted for supporting gun-control laws this year.

Ortiz’s appeal says District Judge Robert McGahey erred in upholding the state constitution’s wording that says recall candidates should have until 15 days before the election to petition onto the recall ballot.

McGahey acknowledged his ruling would eliminate the mail-ballot election called for by a new state law but said the constitution’s language trumped the new state statute, which only gave recall candidates a 10-day petition period after the recall election date was set.

Ortiz claims that by pushing back the deadline for recall candidates to qualify for the ballot, military and other voters who depend on mail ballots are disenfranchised.

The appeal says those voters’ right to vote should outweigh the constitution’s 1912 language that says replacement candidates should have until 15 days before the election to get on the ballot.

“I don’t think the writers of the constitution envisioned the kind of elections that are possible today,” Ortiz said Wednesday afternoon.

The high court will likely make a decision very quickly on whether it will hear the appeal.

Secretary of State Scott Gessler isn’t taking part in the appeal.

.“The voters expect a recall on Sept. 10 and we need to roll up our sleeves and deliver this election,” Gessler said in a statement Wednesday morning.

El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams, who is overseeing the Morse recall, said he wasn’t filing an appeal but may join in if the state high court accepts the case.

McGahey’s ruling essentially wiped out all the preparations that Ortiz and Williams had made to conduct mail-ballot elections, as required by the new state election law passed by Democrats in the General Assembly this year.